One of the siblings of late Chibueze Nwakor, who was allegedly killed by policemen, has narrated how three police AK-47 bullets were found on the deceased’s corpse after an autopsy was conducted by the police.
Amarachi said that the autopsy was carried out in the presence of the family’s lawyer, after several denials by the police authorities, who initially blamed the deceased’s killing on market security.
The late 29-year-old Chibueze, father of three children, who hailed from Owerre-Ezukala, in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State, was reportedly shot dead near Sokoto Road, Main Market in Onitsha, allegedly by policemen attached to the Onitsha Area Command on Friday, October 13, 2023.
The deceased, who was said to be on his way to the market to purchase a food item, was shot by the security officers for his inability to help them locate a direction, which they were heading to on the said date.
After shooting him, the policemen were said to have jumped into their ash-coloured commuter Hiace shuttle bus and zoomed off.
Family and other sources informed South-East Primanews that the victim was rushed to the hospital by sympathisers, but because of the severity of the bullet wounds, he died before receiving medical attention, leaving behind his wife and three children, mother and siblings.
Speaking to our correspondent on the development on Wednesday, Amarachi said, “The police initially denied killing my brother when we lodged the complaint. They claimed that he was shot by the market security in the market. It was then that the autopsy became necessary to ascertain whether it is police bullet or not.
“But after the autopsy and everything, three bullets were detected on my brother’s corpse, two in the waist region and one in the thigh and they were confirmed to be police AK-47 bullets.
“But the police have been denying since. Three bullets, meaning they shot him three times. He was shot on his thighs, one bullet was removed from the thigh region, but the remaining two are still there because where the thing entered was in his waist.
“After the discovery that it was police bullets and they also confirmed it was police that shot him, they started looking for reconciliation, they sent someone to our lawyer and were asking for ‘settlement,’ but the family insisted that the reconciliation should begin by telling us the reason they shot my brother.
“We told them to go and ask the officer that shot him who sent him to do so, and why did he kill him. Who sent them and why did they shoot him three times. The police wanted to manipulate the whole thing, but it did not work for them.
“Since then, the police have not given us any feedback and we don’t know what next they are up to.”
When our correspondent visited the residence of the family of the deceased located at Haruna Street, Odoapku, by Sokoto Road, near Main Market in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Wednesday, sympathisers were still thronging into the compound to console the mother, wife and siblings over his sudden death.
It was gathered that, since his death, the family members, including the mother have remained inconsolable due to the fact that the deceased was the bread winner of the family and was practically carrying the family’s burdens on his shoulders before his sudden demise.
Still speaking amidst teary voice, Amarachi said, “We lost our father at very tender age. My late brother has been the one shouldering the family’s responsibilities and since the incident happened, my mother has remained almost in an unstable condition.
“There is no hope of me going to school, the incident has affected my mother so much to the extent that she has started having behavioural changes which necessitated that someone always stays with her.
“It was so obvious that they are hiding the reason behind my brother’s killing. We are suspecting that something is behind the killing. The way they were trying to maneuver the whole thing showed that. They first denied, claiming that it was the market security people that killed my brother until the autopsy revealed that the bullets found on his body were police bullet.
“We simply want justice to be done. We want the killers to tell us the reason they killed my brother. The government should take care of us, we are in a hopeless situation right now, and my late brother was my father and everything to us. Who will now take care of our family, who will take care of the children and wife he left behind?
“We are begging for food now. We are surviving through the help of neighbours, as my mother has not been going to the market since the incident happened. In fact, the business she is doing was practically being funded by my late brother and now that he is no more, how does she survive?”
The wife of the deceased, Dorcas Nwakor, while also demanding for justice over the killing of her husband, said, “My husband was killed for no just cause, he had no quarrel with anyone, he does legitimate business for a living, he brings in fruits from the Northern part of the country and supplied to fruit sellers at the market.
“I am currently five months pregnant. His killing has affected me and my children so much and I am right now in a very critical condition with my pregnancy. I don’t know what to do, there is no help for me from anywhere. He was killed for no justifiable reasons and without any provocation. He was not a troublemaker.
“He was the breadwinner of the family and his sudden death has cost us so much at the moment. Look at my children, look at my condition. I am five months pregnant. Where will I run to now? Who will help me? My medication and my ante-natal care have been suspended because there is no money, my children are no longer going to school.
“Our landlord called me some days ago to inform us that our rent will soon be due. How do I cope, my husband was making plans to open a business for me before he was killed.”
While demanding for justice over the killing of her husband, she called on relevant agencies to help ensure the matter is not swept under the carpet.
Every effort to get the reactions of the state police spokesman, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, on the latest development on the matter, proved abortive as he did not respond to both messages and calls to his telephone line.